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Join Date

Aug 2009

Location

Cyprus

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29

Putting drum grooves and drum parts together

Hey guys, I play drums for 3 years and i can play some very difficult grooves and fills but i have problem putting them all together. I usually lose my timing and groove and sometimes my balance. I don't practise almost nothing on drumset because of the noise (my father is very sick) but i practise many hours on practice pads. Do you think that this is the problem? If not what do you think is?? Thank you very much

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Apr 2007

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Pennsylvania

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9,268

Re: Putting drum grooves and drum parts together

Originally Posted by adccnotbe

Hey guys, I play drums for 3 years and i can play some very difficult grooves and fills but i have problem putting them all together. I usually lose my timing and groove and sometimes my balance. I don't practise almost nothing on drumset because of the noise (my father is very sick) but i practise many hours on practice pads. Do you think that this is the problem? If not what do you think is?? Thank you very much

I think its just a matter of more practice is needed. Start slow and work your way up to speed this will help.

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Oct 2009

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Port St. Lucie, FL

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799

Re: Putting drum grooves and drum parts together

Try keeping a steady quarter note beat with your foot on your hi-hat when playing ride cymbal and during fills. Will help your co-ordination and keep the groove. Being a drummer you have to have a steady unwavering tempo.
Play along with a drum machine or computer sequence.

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Sep 2008

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Canada

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1,049

Re: Putting drum grooves and drum parts together

Well I guess it depends on what ya want to do- if ya wanna be a drummer playing with other people then your 1st job is to keep time.. That's it. 1234 1234 1234 over and over again. Its a lot of fun to do rolls/fills, but if you come out of your fill out of time, you're no good to anyone. Perhaps working on just the beat, not the fills will get you comfortable with the beat, then putting in fills tends to be a bit easier...............Do you have a full set of practice pads? if so, nothing wrong with that..
Hope this is of some help,
Russ

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Apr 2009

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Sacramento CA

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15,989

Re: Putting drum grooves and drum parts together

Not having a full kit and merely practicing on pads does have its limitations on fluid movements and sticking around the drum kit. The spacing of toms and cymbals around a kit help develop important muscle memory functions that help with accuracy and speed.

If you have limitations that prevent you from practicing, try to add more practice pads and place them where you feel neccesary and spread them out as if they were actual toms and cymbals and see if you can improve your movements around the "kit".

A metonome is a a great tool to keep your sticking in control and great to develop the "cerebral" metronome too.

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Re: Putting drum grooves and drum parts together

My drum teacher is just hammering this into my head. He had given me a bunch of really simple 4/4 8th note grooves and a page of 8th note exercises from the book stick control to use as "fills".

The "fills" are really simple 4/4 8th note stuff. One is LRLR LRLR another is RLRL RLRL another is RLRR RLRR and so on. I think he have me about 25 of them.

He has me play a measure of groove and then a measure of "fill" and then another measure of groove and the next measure of fill and so on until I've played the 25 or so "fill patterns" for each groove.

It's pretty easy stuff but it just gets your brain used to transitioning from the groove to the fill. And the fills being super easy makes it painfully obvious when you come out of a fill slightly off the beat.

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Re: Putting drum grooves and drum parts together

Here is a simple yet very effective trick- play the fill first.

Very often, its easier to play the fill a few times in a row first, and let that dictate the speed of the beat.

Ultimately, its easier to have the fill determine how the beat is played, than it is to have the beat determine how the fill is played. Once you can get them to "line up", you'll obviously have a better idea of how they work together, and then you can make the adjustments and play them correctly.

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Apr 2007

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Tennessee

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Re: Putting drum grooves and drum parts together

David, I know I've seen you around already, but I like to welcome people to Drum Chat, just to make them feel a bit more at home. So welcome to Drum Chat David, and thank you for your thoughtful input.

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Nov 2009

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20

Re: Putting drum grooves and drum parts together

Originally Posted by pastor_bob

David, I know I've seen you around already, but I like to welcome people to Drum Chat, just to make them feel a bit more at home. So welcome to Drum Chat David, and thank you for your thoughtful input.

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Jul 2009

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Buford, GA

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Re: Putting drum grooves and drum parts together

I suppose each drummer do it differently. For me, however, I don't think of the fill in drum notation...I think of fill as a phrase. When I learn a song, I follow the song in my head along with the phrasing of my fills. From there, its just a matter of playing the phrasing onto the drums. This allows me more freedom as I can improvise easier...as long as the phrasing of my fills stay the same or end up the at the same spot without getting out of beat or groove. I hope this makes sense :-)